Fans flock to Griffin’s wedding registry

Like most young couples who are on the brink of matrimony, Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and his fiancée also are engaged in a harvesting of gifts from family and friends.

And in the bizarro version of the dynamic recently experienced by Tavon Austin and Tyron Smith, Griffin has witnessed a sudden outpouring friends who don’t want him to give them something, but who want to give him something.

As revealed Sunday on Griffin’s Twitter page, fans have bought up the items from the online Bed Bath & Beyond registry of Griffin and his future wife, Rebecca Liddicoat.

Griffin’s timeline starts with an acknowledgement of the spontaneous generosity, and continues with his response to the reactions from folks who think that a multimillionaire shouldn’t be seeking or accepting gifts from fans.

In our view, people can spend their money however they choose, whether it’s buying blenders for their sports heroes or contributing to the jackpot for Powerball, which wouldn’t be nearly as successful if its name captured its essence — a tax on the poor and delusional. The poor and delusional spend lots of money on all sorts of things; if nothing else it stimulates the economy.

While neither poor nor delusional, Griffin reflects the naivete of a 23-year-old. He seemed to be genuinely excited by the unprompted generosity of strangers, and unprepared for the finger wagging from folks who believe a guy who signed a $20 million football contract and who makes millions more from off-field pursuits should be buying his own appliances.

If people want to buy stuff for Griffin or anyone else they don’t personally know, so be it. If other people want to criticize those people for making the purchases or Griffin for accepting them, they can. There’s no right or wrong, just people doing the things they’re entitled to do — whether it’s spending money on someone who essentially is a stranger or spending time worrying about what that stranger and those buying him stuff do.

I don’t blame Griffin for any of this but the trend of people giving giving gifts to multimillionaire celebrities just so they can be associated with them in some fashion is crazy.

Millionaire celebrities are the people who need your help the least. It would not be a hardship in the least for Griffin to purchase these things for himself if it came to it.

Bottom line is if you don’t know the couple personally and they are already rich make a donation to a charity in their name if you feel you need a way to associate your name with the couple. That way someone who actually needs help might get some.

I have no problem with this at all. It’s the American way to capitalize, no? He’s not lying or cheating ppl outta funds like some ponzi schemers or anything. You guys are just a bunch of Debbie Downers they view things half empty than half full.

Oh no, it’s not appropriate for poor/middle class folks to buy an NFL player something, because that transfers wealth from the poor to a millionaire.

It’s far more appropriate to buy merch, sales, and tickets to transfer wealth from the poor to a billionaire owner.

And before you say that it’s different because the fan is “getting something” when they buy a jersey or a ticket, realize that whenever someone spends their money, they are “getting something” — tangiable or otherwise. When you buy a jersey, you are not just buying an “article of clothing” — you are buying a feeling of connectedness into a community.

Ditto for fans buying RGIII a wedding gift…they want to feel connected to the team.

It’s wrong and hypcrytical to say that fans can “buy connectedness” if they give the money to a super-rich owner, but wrong when they give money to a not-so-rich player.

Stop missing the forest for the trees.

east96st says:May 20, 2013 9:06 AM

I have known several people with salaries well north of $250K that have gotten married. Their wedding registries were all the same – “in lieu of gifts, please consider a donation to Charity A or Charity B”. In fairness to Griffin, this is more likely the behavior of the wife to be, I doubt Robert is spending ANY time at BB&B, but he should have put a stop to it once he found out. This is absolutely classless and grotesque.

drunkenjoe says:May 20, 2013 9:12 AM

I think he needs to get a clue! So i bought them the board game “Clue”

desal2ds says:May 20, 2013 9:17 AM

My thing is RG3 has to do something in return for these folks other than trying to win football games.

Is there a minimum word count you have to meet? I can’t figure out if its for search engine optimization reasons or because of a required word count. But, I often find that like this article, the last 3 paragraphs say the same thing. Sometimes less is more.

All I see is a bunch of liberal entitlement freaks complaining about a man that isnt into the destructive nature of the PC crowd. Thank God our QB has enough intellect to know how PC is killing America.

and the rich just keep getting richer!!! heres an idea have all the duplicate presents donated to homeless charities if its bed bath and beyond the homes and shelters could probably use a few towels and gravy boats

“RG3 Has New Bathmats” could have been your article title, real in-depth journalism. Has this site become a partner of TMZ yet?

CKL says:May 20, 2013 10:35 AM

Oh my goodness…name me any young couple who doesn’t have a registry? Wes Welker and his wife did and I don’t think they are hurting financially. I bet Eric Decker and his fiancee do too. So what? If you CHOOSE to buy him something great. If you don’t, guess what, that’s also your choice.

What has always irked me is second weddings that have registries (we told people no gifts at ours) and second families that have baby showers. Now that’s greedy.

LogicalVoices and his delusional friends going to sue to take their blenders and toasters back when they realize he’s a one-year wonder now that the league has gametape or worse, he blows his knee out again.

wow! Florio has proven to be a real redskin hater trying to rehash articles about changing their name and now you go after the franchise player.
It is custom and traditonal for a couple to have a wedding registrar…maybe you should have run this article past your wife first to see what she would say

bigmikeskinsfan says:May 20, 2013 11:36 AM

all you people talking trash must not realize that some reporter found his registry and then wrote an article with a link to it. he didnt do this himself!!

metalhead65 says:May 20, 2013 11:56 AM

as you say florio how I spend my money is my business and if I want to take a chance however remote on getting rich by buy a lottery ticket it does not make me poor or delusional. maybe you should take some sensitivity training and think about all the people you have hurt and insulted by referring to them as such. I will be expecting a column apologizing for saying such broad statement about people who play the lottery. or is it okay to be insensitive as long as it does not pertain to something you like?

rlj – that’s right. His fiance has a right to have a wedding registry. Don’t try telling your wife or fiance that she has to skip the “fun” of doing that because “I got all the bling you need, baby!”

Leave them alone, people.

sonnyandsam says:May 20, 2013 12:24 PM

First, the registry was never intended for the public; only for family and friends. Even rich people get married and have family and friends give gifts. It is just a traditional thing to do.

The registry was outed by the Washington Post which, in my opinion, showed a lack of class by publicizing the registry and how to get to it.

And so what if fans wanted to buy a toaster or bathmat or whatever. Some may have done it to get an autographed thank you card, some may have just wanted to do it as a thank you for the kind of guy Robert Griffin III is; and maybe others wanted to do it as a lark. It is THEIR freakin’ money. NONE of you haters should be complaining about how someone chooses to spend their own money. They earned it; they, not you, get to decide how they spend their money.

Some of you need to learn to enjoy life and be positive. Because the hating and complaining and whining just shows all of us the kind of person you really are.

I don’t care what he does with his gifts even if he does donate them at this point. I just read his Twitter messages and that’s more than enough of finding out what kind of person Robert Griffin is for one day, and maybe enough for a lifetime. If he donated them now, it would only be a scrambling effort to buy up cheap PR since it’s clear that he’s offended at the prospects of keeping the gifts as he seemingly intends.

So yes Robert you can accept the gifts despite already being rich. You just can’t accept them with grace is all.

And he’s nuts if he doesn’t invite Tom Brady. That guy is loaded and also will appreciate Griffin’s hording style. Maybe after the reception party Robert and Tom can compare stories about big loot hauls. Those guys could probably be best friends.

thirdistheworrd says:May 20, 2013 1:30 PM

CKL says: May 20, 2013 10:35 AM

Oh my goodness…name me any young couple who doesn’t have a registry? Wes Welker and his wife did and I don’t think they are hurting financially. I bet Eric Decker and his fiancee do too. So what? If you CHOOSE to buy him something great. If you don’t, guess what, that’s also your choice.

What has always irked me is second weddings that have registries (we told people no gifts at ours) and second families that have baby showers. Now that’s greedy.
________________
sonnyandsam says: May 20, 2013 12:24 PM
and maybe others wanted to do it as a lark.
_______________________
Exactly. I don’t know why finding middle ground is so hard to do around here. Having a wedding registry is an American tradition. Griff and his fiancee are not evil, money-grubbing Scrooges for setting up a registry, and Redskins fans are not brainless chumps for buying things on the registry.

Does every Packer fan buying a cheesehead hat expect an invite to Aaron Rodgers birthday party? Does every Steeler fan with a terrible towel want to be Facebook friends with Dan Rooney? Fans express their loyalty in silly ways all the time with no expectation of reciprocation (except on the field).

Point is, when you look at an innocent situation and see both parties being in the wrong, you probably aren’t looking at it right.

thirdistheworrd says:May 20, 2013 1:44 PM

sonnyandsam says: May 20, 2013 12:24 PM
and maybe others wanted to do it as a lark.
________________
Everyone who has a problem with this should look up the word “lark” in the dictionary right now.

It was just a goofy, spontaneous act, with nothing expected in return. Fans like to be fans. You could buy yourself a jersey, or a themed license plate, or a dog food bowl, or, for the rest of your life, you could have a funny story about how you bought Robert Griffin a set of tumblers.

Redskins fans love Robert Griffin– Every city needs a symbolic leader they can be proud of, and in the absence of any other such individual, and the DMV area has rallied around Griffin as the heart and soul of the city. Buying the registry items is just a goofy way for fans to express how much he means to the region.

thirdistheworrd says:May 20, 2013 1:57 PM

thestrategyexpert says: May 20, 2013 1:08 PM

I don’t care what he does with his gifts even if he does donate them at this point. I just read his Twitter messages and that’s more than enough of finding out what kind of person Robert Griffin is for one day, and maybe enough for a lifetime. If he donated them now, it would only be a scrambling effort to buy up cheap PR since it’s clear that he’s offended at the prospects of keeping the gifts as he seemingly intends.

So yes Robert you can accept the gifts despite already being rich. You just can’t accept them with grace is all.
_________________
You have to be a shockingly hateful person to read that into Griffin’s tweets. That being the case, I don’t even know why I’m bothering to respond.

Nobody who has heard Griffin speak, or seen how he carries himself on and off the field could possibly come to the conclusion that this is a kid who cares about money, or possessions, or even whether or not he has a fan following.

Griffin was clearly delighted, thankful, and appreciative of a fan base that had bought his wedding registry on a whim, and then subsequently upset when he began to be attacked left and right for receiving the gifts. Griffin’s initial reaction was nothing but graceful. His secondary reaction was confused and hurt, and possibly a little bit guilty, when he realized they sort of had a point.

For an individual who has worked hard to hold himself up to the highest character and moral standards being attacked for greed and arrogance during a a high point in a really happy time in his life has to be very upsetting and confusing, and if you base your judgment of an individual off of that, you were never trying to view him in a good light in the first place.

peytonsneck18 says:May 20, 2013 2:28 PM

i got him a new stereo for his custom made hoveround wheel chair that he will be using this coming up season